These religions have provided you all with shoes that don’t fit – shoes which may have fit somebody five thousand years ago. They have given you pants which don’t fit. They are making a mockery of you, because those shoes are not made according to your needs, those pants are not made for you, those shirts are not made for you. Everything that these religions are supplying for you has been made by somebody else for somebody else far back – centuries before. Nothing fits; everything gives nothing but pain.

But these religions have been teaching you: blessed are those who suffer, blessed are those who live in misery, blessed are those whose lives are of hostility, asceticism, self-torture, because they shall inherit the kingdom of God. So just to inherit the kingdom of God you go on wearing shoes that don’t fit, caps that are so loose that you cannot see – they cover your eyes. Clothes that are either so small that you want to jump out of them or so loose that a crowd can live inside them – the whole family can be accommodated.

The rebellious man cannot accept any of this idiocy. His religion is his intelligence. His religion is his consciousness.

His religion is his awareness.

And out of his awareness, he becomes as free as a bird on the wing, as beautiful as a lotus in the pond, and as joyous as a cuckoo singing from the mango grove. He starts living for the first time, and he knows that life is the only God there is – there is no other God.

The rebellious man is a pagan. He worships the trees, he worships the stars, he worships the rivers, the mountains. He worships man, he worships everything that is alive – because wherever there is life, there is godliness.

Osho,
Nijinsky was once asked why people of the same century all seem to be alike. He answered: “It is the result of their clothing, because the clothes dictate our movements.” Could you please talk about clothes and the new man?

First it has to be understood that Nijinsky is a great dancer but understands nothing about human consciousness and its growth. What he says is partially true. When asked why people of the same century all seem to be alike, he answered, “It is the result of their clothing, because the clothes dictate our movements.”

It is a partially true statement, but it is not only the clothes – the whole educational system is similar, the upbringing of people is similar, their superstitions are similar, their political ideologies are similar, their food is similar. All these things together – not only the clothes; that is only one of the similarities – give people of one certain period a sameness.

Society does not like unique people; it wants everybody to be part of the herd. Hence, hair should be cut in a certain way, clothes should be worn in a certain way, food should be eaten in a certain way. What should be eaten, what should be read, what is acceptable to the culture and what is not – all these imposed things give a similarity to almost everybody. It destroys individuality and uniqueness.